WEC: Conway to make Toyota start in Brazil

Mike Conway will make his third race start for Toyota in the World Endurance Championship at the Brazilian finale in place of Kazuki Nakajima.

The Briton will again drive the #7 TS040 Hybrid, in which he took victory last weekend in Bahrain together with Alex Wurz and Stephane Sarrazin, at Interlagos on November 30 because Nakajima has been unable to secure the necessary visa to travel to Brazil.

A spokesman for the Toyota Motorsport GmbH team said: "Kazuki is not able to race due to delays in the visa application procedure which are out of the team's control."

Conway previously subbed for Nakajima at Circuit of The Americas, which took place on a weekend sandwiched between two Super Formula events in Japan, as well as in Bahrain when the Japanese driver was on Super GT duty. A third appearance for Toyota for test and reserve driver Conway is likely to be a precursor to a full-race deal for next season.

Toyota is refusing to discuss its driver lineup before the deals with all six drivers are set in stone, but it looks increasingly certain that Conway will replace Nicolas Lapierre, who was dropped from the #8 car ahead of the Fuji WEC round last month.

Toyota has taken up its option on Lapierre's services for next season, but it is understood that the deal is for testing only and that the Japanese manufacturer would not stand in the Frenchman's way if he wants to take up the race deal believed to be on offer from LMP1 newcomer Nissan.